My other three campaigns are Stranger in Wesnoth; The Elf, the Dwarf and the Mage; and Sleuth Sisters.

1. For those who have played all four campaigns, which did you like most, and why? Which did you like least, and why?
2. For any or all of the campaigns, how were the difficulty levels? Did they fit with your expectations?
3. Related to this, how did the campaigns work on Hard difficulty? I freely admit that I'm better at coding than playing, so I don't test on Hard.
4. Are there any characters who you would particularly like to see again in future campaigns? Any you wouldn't?
5. Is there anything in particular that I do too much of/don't do enough of?

I'm not going to request any comments on the art, because it is improving, I assure you. "Stranger in Wesnoth" was my first serious attempt at drawing (at the age of fifty-mumble), and I've got a great deal better since, to the point where next time I update SIW it will include redraws of the worst of the art. (Vlachen. And the scene with the mermaid. I was pleased with them at the time, but they make me cringe now.)

Many thanks!

Stranger in Wesnoth - The Elf, the Dwarf and the Mage - Add's Army - Sleuth Sisters - Return of Sir Charles - Comrades in Arms - Thrugbad the Good

I'm sorry about "Add's Army" crashing; it did that sometimes in version 1.10 but I thought I had fixed it. Scenario 07 is not the last scenario, but it is the "big battle" sequence; I tend to do that in the last scenario but one, and then have something a little simpler in the last scenario to wind down. Does it crash anything else on the computer or just Wesnoth?

Stranger in Wesnoth - The Elf, the Dwarf and the Mage - Add's Army - Sleuth Sisters - Return of Sir Charles - Comrades in Arms - Thrugbad the Good

Played the first four scenarios so far on hard. First scenario is fine, you have to be careful so not to start losing units, strange elves is somewhat "unstable" in that it can be quite hard when you underestimate the steadily spawning bats. The ghouls are not trivial to fight, but with enough time and low upkeep, you can earn a lot of gold even when taking your time in a scenario. The fourth scenario (with the dwarves) is really easy (start with 629 gold into the next one), due to dwarf scouts (recruited a dozen and nothing else) and a very effective ally.

Units: You gave all loyals two additional traits while Add has no trait at all. (In Sleuth Sisters one has three traits the other none at all as well.)

In scenario 4 dwarves did most of the work and gold started to look rather unbalanced (gold goes completely through the roof in the following scenarios leaving no difficulty at all), enemies have really bad movement on this map as well granting rapid map control to the player + ally. In scenario 5 the group of elves/humans is pretty useless and hardly did any work at all, the heavy lifting left to dwarf scouts and fighters. Scenario 6 has an interesting, yet easy to play, map pattern although without time limit and no gold constraints (> 1000 gold and 20 base income = no need to ever go negative = even more gold later) it is hardly difficult. Even when under pressure somewhere, you can simple switch into holding mode in a bottle neck while advancing elsewhere. In this scenario you dump half a dozen of loyal units on the player, at this point there is hardly enough time in the campaign left to develop them. I would only hand over loyal units when I intend to give them a line of dialogue later. It is simply too much.* In the next scenario you autorecall all of them, but ... honestly, it is painful to use, apart from the fire drake and the white mage, but a 5 mp elf in a cave, a L1 thief vs. undead, an avenger in a cave? It is also really easy. You may lose some units to high level undead, but it is virtually impossible to be in trouble given the amount of gold I drag around. Unlike previous scenarios the ally is not a help here, ally movement forces fights in the bottle necks instead of on the islands, where it would be much more convenient for the player. Adding a lot more bats, some levelled, and some ghost line units into play would do much to spice this scenario up since it forces you to advance with a big terrain disadvantage (no flyers to use chasms while harrassed by flyers)

* Among loyal units Niddry and Rodd are by far the most interesting. Niddry is dumb as a stick and Rodd is lame (which is the reason I don't recall him in later scenarios, I have quicker dwarves than him), a bit cliché but they have at least this much personality unlike all the others who are dumped on the player so late in the campaign. Altarien is incredibly useful in early scenarios when you still fight mainly with L0 and a few spearmen, archers and poachers, but later he isn't even a better archer than Niddry. I believe a good idea to make early scenarios a bit harder would be changing Altarien to L1 (loyal, dexterous) when he first arrives. He plays the role of archery teacher better that way (and I can level him to Sharpshooter later, which is the option I vastly prefer). I would completely remove the ton of irrelevant loyals joining you later. Give them their dialogue, say thank you and leave as your friends, the drake is really the only one as far as I can tell that will play any role in gameplay (first unit with leadership potential, good damage type, flying).

Giving undead 100 more gold when they have 700 on easy does not make any difference. Even double gold would do little to make scenarios more difficult on some of the maps given that I have no time limit, good gold and bottlenecks, you have to introduce difficulty by other means, e.g. in scenario 7 a small keep stationary bat leader sending vampire and blood bats, depending on difficulty, after you from a small keep in the middle of the chasm reachable only by flight.) The gameplay with dwarves is fine at first, but it makes your humans obsolete. Now, initially it looked like a "waiting for reinforcements" story, but I have all my needs covered way too easily. Why do I suddenly get L1 recruits? Say, had I only a limited number of dwarf recruits (limit by difficulty) and retraining problems with my other recruits being L0, then there would be some sort of challenge in the second half. It would help immersion as well, since my army is still the same from earlier and I would have a reason to level rangers or huntsmen that can do well enough in caves with better movement than most non-dwarves. In the current game I was pretty happy with my first L1 units and my first trapper, but the whole unit type was obsolete shortly after.

The second to last scenario had a bit more challenge than I thought, especially the spectre had me retreating for a while with only the white mage and the troll shaman in that area able to really damage it. A few more flyers would make it significantly harder. A part of the challenge is managing gold while losing a few coins each turn. However, with >1000 going into the scenario that did not really matter. The final scenario is very easy, I started with more gold than the enemy (about 1000, I lost some in the previous scenario, but had enough saved), autorecalls, recall list and two effective allies. Elvish L2 recruits are completely superfluous.

I need a little help. I have been all over the cave/temple, and still have no idea where the door is i need to find. I got the [formerly] captive mage to unlock the door with all the captives, but the "other door" she mentioned is a mystery. Thought it might be that little orcish castle in the upper left where the revenant had been, but Add couldn't open it from any side. also, accumulated a serious gold deficit - will that hurt things in the next scenario, assuming i get there? Many thanks.

Hi, I tried playing Add's Army but I can't even finish the first scenario. The undead are just too strong against only peasants & woodsmen. I tried going for the leader, but when I killed him, someone else just became the leader. I know that I'm missing something. Do reinforcements arrive? How can I win in only 20 moves when I don't think I can win in a hundred moves? Should I assume a defensive posture & wait for reinforcements? It's listed as a novice campaign, but it's seems too hard for me . I can win the other novice campaigns & was looking for a new one that I could play. I suppose it would be redundant to say that I'm not a good player.

Byron wrote:Hi, I tried playing Add's Army but I can't even finish the first scenario. The undead are just too strong against only peasants & woodsmen. I tried going for the leader, but when I killed him, someone else just became the leader. I know that I'm missing something. Do reinforcements arrive? How can I win in only 20 moves when I don't think I can win in a hundred moves? Should I assume a defensive posture & wait for reinforcements? It's listed as a novice campaign, but it's seems too hard for me. I can win the other novice campaigns & was looking for a new one that I could play. I suppose it would be redundant to say that I'm not a good player.

Hard to give really beneficial advice without replay. I added replays for the first three scenarios (on hard difficulty as far as I remember). (Imo it is not the most balanced campaign, but I got into it much better than the others by same author.) If you played several novice campaigns, a natural step would be trying some intermediate campaign on easy setting.